Friday, November 21, 2014

The Fall of an Icon

Bill Cosby is about the closest thing we have to being a cultural
icon in this country. His contributions to the advancement of interracial relations
are exceptional. His hit television series, ‘The Cosby Show’ (1984-92) literally
changed the way Americans saw their black neighbors. For the first time blacks
were portrayed as people with the same middle class values as their white
counterparts. Cosby’s character, Cliff Huxtable was a successful obstetrician
and Felicia Rashad who played his wife Clair was a successful attorney. Their
children were as normal as any middle class white family’s children would be… having
the same lifestyles, goals, and problems any middle class family would have.

For the first time there was a major TV series that went against the stereotypical
portrayal of blacks as an underclass living in slums and leading a life of
poverty, violence, and crime with no decent values at all.

The fact that it was such a hit is what made his
contribution so significant. I truly believe that this series changed the way
most white Americans saw blacks.

Bill Cosby had a wonderful reputation before that. He was a
man of honor who kept his word. My children’s elementary day school, Arie Crown, hired him for a concert fundraiser
one year – at a very reasonable price. He accepted with a caveat that if a
better deal came along - he could break his contract with us. That is exactly
what happened. But being the gentleman
he was he promised us that next year he would come perform for us guaranteed
for the same price. He kept his word. It was one of the most successful fundraising
events we ever had up to that time. What made it special is the type of humor
he presented. It was completely clean and it kept us in stitches. Shortly after
that he debuted his series.

Bill Cosby did not stop keeping his eye on his community
after his series ended. He was a man of conviction and did not let the political
correctness of black leaders like Al Sharpton influence his actions. He ‘told
it like it was’ despite enormous criticism from black leaders like Sharpton. He
believed that the image of ‘Cliff Huxtable’ was obtainable for a lot more
blacks than was currently the case. But that the culture of disinterest in education – that is so prevalent in impoverished black neighborhoods prevented it.
He urged young black people to ‘pull themselves up by their own bootstraps’ and
get out of the cycle of poverty and crime they were in which they were immersed in their own
neighborhoods.

All of the made him a hero for me. But there is a ‘fly in the ointment’. First there were accusations of an extra-marital
affair that produced a child. That proved to be true. He admitted it. And more recently there
have been accusations of rape. Multiple accusations by women who described their
ordeal in similar ways. Rape that occurred decades ago when Bill Cosby was a
young man – albeit already a successful comedian.

Cosby has remained silent about these accusations refusing to
admit them to deny them. Of course as is always the case, a man should be
given the benefit of the doubt when one is uncertain of the truth. That
is what our system of jurisprudence is about. Innocent until proven guilty.

That said, it is highly unlikely that so many different
woman have come out recently to describe what happened to them so many years
ago. All with a similar modus operandi.
It is doubtful that these women collaborated in some sort of conspiracy
to ‘get their stories straight’. I don’t see what they could gain by lying
about it. I doubt it is about money. If I understand correctly lawsuits are not available to them because of the statute of limitations. Why did they take so
long to come out? There are many
reasons. Perhaps they thought nobody would believe them. Maybe they just wanted
to get on with their lives and not spend the time and energy in what they
probably thought was a lost cause in making accusations against a popular
celebrity. I don’t know. But I believe them. There are too many accusations -
similarly described - for them all to be false.

For those of you that felt the way I did about Cosby,
perhaps we can see why there is so much disbelief and denial when a local icon
is accused of it. It is very understandable there is disbelief when a community
hero is accused of such despicable acts. How can a man like’ Bill Cosby’ (fill in your own icon) have done what he is
accused of? Everything he stands for - stands against those accusations. They
must be lies. And the person making these accusations are the real despicable
ones. Who knows why they’re doing it. They are evil people. Or sick people. But
liars either way.

I believe that this is what generates protocols by Agudah like telling rabbis first before
reporting it to police… and let them sort it out. Those rabbis know their ‘Bill
Cosbys’. And they simply cannot fathom that it could ever be true about a man whose
entire life has been dedicated to doing so much good for the world. My guess is that unless
there is hard evidence of sexual abuse, accusations about icons are rejected.
And then those abusers are free to continue their abuse.

Obviously it is the wrong approach to be biased in favor of an accused sex abuser whose entire life up to this point seemed to be
exemplary – albeit a natural one. And that is why rabbis who are not experts - and are Nogieh B’Davar (biased) knowing well the accused and his pristine reputation - are not the ones to determine the
veracity of an accusation.

I was therefore very gratified to hear the address given by Rabbi
Avrohom Nesanel Zucker at the Agudah convention last week who made some of these very points. Perhaps his words and the events with Cosby will turn the tide.

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.